Dilemma over sons mobile?

Melonade

lostinrates wrote: »

Goodness gracious help us if this is the case. :eek:

Op, I'd be terrified after my son were assaulted in that manner, how is it he is still seeing his attacker, was no action taken? Why is he not scared enough to be carrying his phone after this? Or is he too scared to carry his phone? There seems there MUST be more to tell here that could possibly be relevant?

The lad is being sentenced next week and for now has been told not to contact, talk to, look at my son. Not sure much will happen though tbh. Hoping it's taken serious enough as he is 18 and my son is only 14.

Just had a word with him again and explained how important it is for him to be able to contact me if he needs to, especially with what happened in the past. He agreed and told me he'll use the phone from now on. He knows I'm not pushy or insisting I know where he is every second, but knows that every now and again I need to let him know I'm not home or will be late.

Unfortunately there's nothing I can or am willing to do to get him a newer phone. The best I can do is give him mine when I get a newer one but he'll only be going from a 3G to a 3GS

Just have to see how it goes, luckily I didn't get round to cancelling the contract. Balls in his court for now

Melonade

balletshoes wrote: »

Great - he doesn't want to pay for credit, you're not going to either, you are getting (or have got) his friend's phone numbers to contact him if you need to, no money is wasted, everybody's happy .

He has a good friend (L) that he goes to football with after school and I used to have his number. My son phoned me a few weeks ago from a strange number and it turns out to be his good friends phone on a new number. I saved the number and had to phone son on it last week, phone Is dead and when I asked son he said "Oh L has a new number" :eek:

He only has one friend that hasn't changed phone numbers and he doesn't see him out of school anyway, except for Saturday.... but then my son takes his own phone.

This is part of the reason it winds me up over not taking the phone lol.

Gloomendoom

Melonade wrote: »

Honestly I just want him to have the phone so IF I need him or he needs me then it's possible without him using someone else's phone.

I do have have some sympathy for this. I don't 'do' mobile phones but when I was was young, unlike now, phone boxes were everywhere.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Melonade wrote: »

When I say flip my lid I certainly don't mean on him more like I'm about to have a private tantrum and maybe bang my head against a wall lol.

He can be forgetful sometimes but not really enough were the phone is concerned. We remind him every day.

Bullying has been mentioned earlier in the thread and I will speak to him if I ever manage to track him down I don't think people want to snatch his phone either, his mates and most of his school have the same or newer phones and tbh it's not even worth that much now thanks to the way he looks after it.

I'm starting to think he's doing it on purpose to get a new phone. He's done it before in the past, telling me the phone is broke or has a rubbish battery. His new excuse is the apps don't work because the phone is too old :rotfl:

He's very likely getting a load of verbal from the bullies about having a crap phone. He'll get less hassle for not having a phone at all than having one others use as an excuse for having yet another go at him.

Tiddlywinks

We need to get over the false sense of security of thinking that carrying a mobile phone will keep children safer... it won't.

What did we do before mobiles? My mum didn't panic if she couldn't speak to me as soon as I left school... maybe the son needs to feel he has some 'space' to be left without interruption.

peachyprice

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

What did we do before mobiles? My mum didn't panic if she couldn't speak to me as soon as I left school... maybe the son needs to feel he has some 'space' to be left without interruption.

We just made sure we always had a 2p in our pocket when we went out.

Dunroamin

peachyprice wrote: »

We just made sure we always had a 2p in our pocket when we went out.

Not necessarily - many of us didn't have home phones when we were teenagers so we just had to come back at the time we were supposed to or face parental wrath.

Kaz2904

Melonade, I'm with you. I wouldn't pay for his phone either if he's not taking it out. How about deducting the £10 per month from his pocket money?
I feel your pain, DD's now 11 nearly 12 and she's just been grounded, lost her stereo and had her phone taken away because her attitude stinks. They do so much to wind us up at this age that it's hard to get it down concisely without it sounding like you want to eat your young!

jaydeeuk1

Ovivo. £20, no monthly fee, no need to top up (unless you go over the free monthly limits)

http://ovivomobile.com/offer/ovivo-for-phones/

Spendless

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

We need to get over the false sense of security of thinking that carrying a mobile phone will keep children safer... it won't.

What did we do before mobiles? My mum didn't panic if she couldn't speak to me as soon as I left school... maybe the son needs to feel he has some 'space' to be left without interruption.

Having got a teen son who isn't interested in taking/using a phone. ^^^^ I have had to learn to accept. I will say that without the prop of a phone I find my son concentrates more on the task in hand and thinks more independently. Eg Sometimes when we are at work I've asked eldest to fetch youngest into town on the bus so she can get to her drama class in time. The 1st time they did it, he forgot to put his hand out to stop the bus to alight! Phone was used to tell me they were running late. Last week phone was missing, there were no mistakes made catching the bus as I wasn't contactable from the time they left our house. My son has also been assaulted -close to our house, by several kids he knew and a bigger group of bystanders. No phone, he instead went to a passer-by for help. His mate who did have a phone with him 'froze' and didn't do anything.

One of the reasons son isn't interested in having a phone at school is because if it rings/vibrates/alarm sounds it's an automatic detention, so he just finds it easier to not have one.